


Employment to Dragons is, In Fact, Incredibly Unsettling

by Nosferatank



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Dragons and their hoards, Gen, Mild Gore, Petty Theft, inefficient usage of supply lines, long-haired Ephraim, yes the convoy is a character work with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 12:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8713258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nosferatank/pseuds/Nosferatank
Summary: Eirika's and Ephriam's hoard was a country's worth, but of course young dragons are prone to greed, and some things are just too good to be left outside of their possession.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Echinoderma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echinoderma/gifts).



> me, hiding in the loft in an Albanian barn and eating hay to sustain myself for the coming winter months: remember Jen’s manakete twins au because i do and i fell in love with it again oops.

Rennac supposed that he, of all people, ought to be more accustomed to the various eccentricities of nobles, what with the Rausten woman practically enslaving him. Compared to L’Arachel, the Renais twins were downright _normal_ , disturbingly reptilian appearances aside.

That supposition lasted all of two hours after he was forcibly re-enlisted to L’Arachel’s services when the twins started… rummaging, for lack of better words, amongst the sand (and the corpses, but the less said about that the better).

Prince Innes, who had recently joined up with their steadily growing crew, audibly groaned when he caught sight of what the young wyrmfolk were up to.

“Fantastic. Now we’ll be certainly stuck here for far longer than I’d like.” the archer muttered, consternation clear on his face.

Rennac, deciding that he would very much like to know what the hells was up with the Renais despite Innes’s rather sour mood, asked “Is this a… regular thing, or something?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Innes huffed. “Some foolish villager, woe be unto them, decided to inform Eirika and Ephraim that there was treasure to be found here.”

“So now they must have these treasures, huh.” The thief concluded.

Rennac watched as the royal siblings bartered with each other over a few of their finds: it seemed Ephraim quite liked the splintered old staff his sister had found and was trying to trade a filthy looking tome for it. Or at least Rennac thought is was Ephraim - what with the prince’s long hair he could be easily mistaken for Eirika from this distance.

Innes saw fit to comment on his friends’ behavior and said “At least it doesn’t look like completely useless junk this time.”

“Uh, looks kinda useless to me.” Rennac said as he observed, with no small amount of incredulity, as Ephraim pilfered a depleted Guiding Ring from a dead mage.

With the finger still attached.

The Frelian archer slid his eyes towards Rennac, snorting.

“Oh, you think this is bad, you should see the back of the supply caravan. I swear there’s an entire cart full of used healing staves that Ephriam stowed away back there. Saints only know he’s never let me close enough to actually see it, though.”

“Dragons and their damned hoards…” the prince muttered under his breath.

“So they hoard the useless stuff, huh…” Rennac pondered aloud, thinking about how he could turn a profit on a pair of baby manaketes’ misbegotten obsessions.

In a carefully conversational tone, he asked Innes. “Say, what do the Renais coffers look like, these days?”

The archer deigned to look at him this time, looking a bit miffed at the apparent stupidity of the question.

“What the coffers are is locked tight. Besides, I know what you’re thinking, thief.”

Letting him stew on that for a few moments, Innes continued.

“And if the twins wanted something from you that badly, they’d simply take it. Their concept of property is a bit… different from ours.”

With that odd parting statement, Prince Innes left for the main group, apparently to “Warn the cart master that he needs to do some cramming.”

Rennac felt a prick of disappointment that he was unlikely to sell useless junk to the Renais fledgelings, but he had other ways of turning a profit. He reached into his pocket for his member card and-

It wasn’t there.

Frantically the thief upended his pockets and emptied his bag and for the life of him he could not find the damn card!

Then he remembers the sensation of the spines on Princess Eirika’s scaly arms brushing against his shoulder in the Jehanna Hall.

Rennac groaned. He’d been pickpocketed by the half-dragon equivalent of a fifteen year old.

Dozla was never going to let him forget this.

———

Rennac cursed L’arachel’s ridiculous saintly ancestor for the misfortune that landed him on the patrol roster for today. He’d long gotten over the nightmarish creatures regularly encountered on their march, despite the Baels still giving him the shivers. No, the monsters weren’t the problem.

What made the position unenviable was the duty of keeping the young dragon heirs from wasting both time and space. A task far more difficult than it sounded, Rennac had learned.

Rennac watched from the top of the cart as the royals went about their rather strange business. Whether it was to add to their hoard or some instinctual desire to claim battle trophies from the dragonkin’s old enemies, Eirika and Ephraim had taken to collecting monsters. Or parts of them, at least.

Currently, Eirika had just finished skinning out a Mauthe Dog, and proceeded to break open its jaws with a sickening _crack-squelch_ and pry the teeth out by digging her claws beneath the root, setting the bloodstained spikes on the Mauthe skin. Ephraim, bless his heart, had a slightly cleaner occupation, and was methodically sorting out the vertebrae from the pile of Wight bones the prince had accumulated.

Rennac watched as the cartmaster, a portly older man who, in Rennac’s esteemed opinion, possessed balls of solid steel, approach Ephraim and explained to him that no, they cannot possibly fit that many bones in the wagon. As the cartmaster moved to dispose of the excess remains, the prince uttered a chest-deep growl that made Rennac’s hindbrain squeal at him to run for the hills.

With a disapproving glare that could cow demons into apologies, the old man flicked his prince’s ear and admonished. “Don’t bare your fangs at me like some common beast, boy. It’s _impolite_.”

With that, the fearless cartmaster marched an admonished Ephraim away from the overlarge pile of bones, the prince making an admirable impression of a hatchling scolded by its parents. Eirika was, thankfully, more open to reason at this time, hurrying with her burden of teeth and skins after the nameless old man bellowed that “The fur on the skin would slip” if she “kept on dallying for the remainder of the day”.

At least they hadn’t started trying to drag home full corpses, yet.

 

**Author's Note:**

> long haired ephraim is the absolute best idea, no holds barred. and maybe i’m projecting by thinking manakete eirika would like taxidermy and vulture culture but meh whatever.
> 
> as always, i can be found @anankos on tumblr.


End file.
